New Delhi, July 26

The CBI has arrested 43 people during a crackdown on a Gurugram-based call centre, nabbing the suspected cyber criminals live in the act of defrauding foreign nationals by promising to address issues with their computers, officials said Friday.

The CBI has booked a company, Innocent Technology (OPC) Pvt Ltd which runs from Gurgram's DLF Cyber City, and raided its premises as part of the agency's ongoing Operation CHAKRA-III aimed at dismantling sophisticated cyber-enabled financial crime network operating across multiple countries since 2022.

A total of seven locations in Delhi and its posh suburbs of Noida and Gurugram were searched.

During the operation, a task force comprising cybercrime domain experts swiftly descended on the call centre, capturing several employees engaged in live cyber crime activities, resulting in the interception of substantial incriminating evidence.

"The CBI is actively coordinating with the FBI and law enforcement agencies across various nations via Interpol to pursue leads for further action," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The central agency seized 130 computer hard disks, 65 mobile phones, five laptops, incriminating documents, financial transaction details, call recordings, victim particulars, and transcripts used in victim targeting.

The modus operandi involved call centre employees masquerading as cybersecurity specialists to target victims abroad. The prospective victims were induced to click on pop-ups, downloading malicious software that compromised their systems.

"The victims were subsequently induced to make payments for restoration of their system. It is revealed that proceeds of crime were channelized from multiple countries to Hong Kong," the CBI spokesperson said.

The action was initiated after the CBI found that transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes in this network were being coordinated across distributed centers mainly directed from a Call Centre Operating from DLF Cyber City, Gurugram, he said.